‘All I See Is You” may leave you blindsided

Sunday

Oct 29, 2017 at 7:50 PM

Would it be tasteless and politically incorrect to call “All I See Is You,” a film about a blind woman who regains her vision, shortsighted?

I suppose, but it would also be accurate. If there’s one thing the film could have used more of, it’s imagination. And for a film billed as a psychological thriller, it’s lacking in the excitement department too. Heck, you’ll find more morals at a mafia mixer than thrills in this movie.

The film stars Blake Lively as Gina who, we discover in flashbacks, was blinded as a child in a car accident that killed her parents. She now lives in Bangkok with her husband James (Jason Clarke). He got a cushy job there, but the backdrop could have been anywhere. We do have one scene where Gina tries to learn Thai. Whoop-dee-do.

Much more troubling is that we never do learn how the two met and fell in love. A back story would have helped flesh out the characters. Do we assume James is a standup guy for marrying a blind woman or is he a control freak who uses his wife’s disability to his advantage?

That question will be answered fairly quickly when Gina undergoes an operation that restores sight to her right eye. I guess the surgery is so cutting edge that only eye surgeons in Bangkok can perform it. Danny Huston plays the eye doctor.

Anyway, once Gina gets her eyesight back, we no longer get subjected to cinematographer Matthias Koenigwieser’s onslaught of psychedelic images best appreciated after consuming mass quantities of LSD. Far out, man, dig those blurry visuals that mirror what Gina is seeing – or not seeing. Groovy.

And if you’re into deep meaning, you might conclude that once Gina gets her eyesight back, she finally sees what her life is really like. And she doesn’t like everything she sees. Like their apartment. And like, well… can you guess what else? For even more heaviosity, do you think James might become blinded by insecurity now that he can no longer “guide” his wife through life? What will he do?

In case you missed any of this cerebral foreplay, director Marc Forster (“World War Z”) drives home the point with a scene where Gina binds and blindfolds James for a little kinky sex. For some reason, he doesn’t enjoy this role reversal. He also doesn’t care to join Gina when she enters a peep show. What’s wrong with this guy?

For a little juxtaposition of what a healthy marriage should look like, Gina and James visit Gina’s sister Carla (Ahna O’Reilly) and her randy husband Ramon (Miquel Fernandez) in Spain where they live with their young son.

It seems Gina and James would like a child, too, but, oh, those darn complications.

For all of the film’s sins of omission and commission, the ending is particularly ludicrous. It’s about as satisfying as a stale sunflower seed.

Keeping this movie from dregs status is Lively. I admire that this ridiculously beautiful actress of “Gossip Girl” fame is taking on roles that actually require acting. We’ll excuse her last film, “The Shallows,” where she gets terrified by a shark who won’t forgive her for stealing Ryan Reynolds from Scarlett Johansson. Lively performs more admirably in “The Age of Adaline.” Yes, she’s not going to be compared to Meryl Streep anytime soon, but beauty can be a burden, too, in that you might have trouble being taken seriously. I know, because I have that same problem. They call me the Brad Pitt of movie critics.

Returning to reality, “All I See Is You” is one of those films that trudges into Hallmark Hall of Fame territory where disabilities get exploited for emotional payback. If you want to see how this subject matter can be handled to evoke real psychological terror, see “Wait Until Dark.”

“All I See Is You”, instead, limps along to its conclusion. Its real handicap is chronic dullness.

The film is 100 minutes long and rated R for strong sexual content, nudity and profanity. It is directed by Marc Forster and written by Forster, Craig Baumgarten, Michael Selby and Jillian Kugler. It stars Blake Likely and Jason Clarke.

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